


Roses

by therapppies



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: All hurt, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Romance, Canonical Character Death, Drama, Eventual Happy Ending, Everybody Dies, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, I Ship It, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Meruem x Komugi, One Shot, POV First Person, Romance, komugi - Freeform, merumugi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:47:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27524848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therapppies/pseuds/therapppies
Summary: Gungi is a strategic board game that requires two players. Similar to chess, the winner of the game is the one who kills the king. And Meruem, the Chimera Ants King, immerse himself in his thoughts during the last match against Komugi.
Relationships: Meruem/Komugi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	Roses

**Author's Note:**

> based on the song "right here" by Basement.  
> enjoy!

“I wanted to spend my last final moment playing against you.” Meruem said.

The King’s greatest desire was to continue. He wanted so badly to keep going that the anguish in his chest exponentially grew as if every cell in his body was begging to God for a few more minutes. Every single thousandth of a second next to Komugi was an incentive to increase the heartbeats, at this point already weak, of his heart. The strength to continue there demanded so much from his body and from his mind, but he continued with his upright posture and tried to keep his voice as calm as possible. He didn't want to spoil that moment.

Meruem completely lost count of how many matches they’d played, and any number was still too little for how much his heart looked forward to. It might seem overreacted the way he was desperately holding on to live that moment, but he was sure it was all he needed. The most beautiful of certainties.

“I’m so happy, Meruem-sama!” Komugi said with tears running out of her eyes. The happiness in her voice was so genuinely that it reverberates through all the pores of Meruem’s body, increasing his heartbeat. 

All this was something exceptionally new for the King. It was something that not even the laws of science themselves could expect, no graphic and no theory would be able to explain Meruem’s life and the complexity of his feelings — not even he himself could put into words what he felt when Komugi smiled when she moved a piece of the board.

Sublime.

Given the absence of logical answers, all he could think of was how incredibly frightening, and also beautiful, is the power one person had over the other. Or actually, the power that only one person had over him. Meruem couldn't tell the moment when he realized that the only purpose of his life had been crashed and reduced to dust; his main goal was to take over the world’s hierarchy and to exterminate the human species. His very existence and conception were the perfect crystallization of this desire, consolidated by the efforts of so many Chimeras’s generations. Pride on nature and contempt for humans; it was simple. Why would he have any sign of compassion towards them? Creatures driven by free and dysfunctional cruelty, selfishness and greed. 

At least, he thought it was simple.

However, it is not a surprise that his thoughts and principles totally changed towards the arrival of Komugi. At first, both of them were instigated by the simple natural challenge of winning the opponent, but in the course of endless matches, the two were driven by a feeling, until then, unknown: the genuine desire to play against the other. With the other one.

The King’s life, in spite of being short, took on such huge dimensions, causing astronomical impacts. Nevertheless, without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest impact that life had on him was Komugi, the one who taught him the meaning of kindness. There was a singular beauty in her, with such pure feelings that its vocabulary couldn't measure that grandiosity. Meruem understood that human life was not only marked by greed and violence; there was beauty, and honesty, as well as honest smiles, even facing so much pain. There was immeasurable willpower to want to live. It was in all the Komugi’s smiles and tears that Meraram understood the meaning of humanity.

Too bad he understood it so late. 

But at that moment, the Ant King soon tried to avoid conditioning his thoughts to the "what if' of life, since he would succumb to fear and anguish, and wouldn’t appreciate the last vision of Komugi concentrated in the game.

“1,5,1 marshal.” Meruem’s voice faltered while he was moving the pieces on the board.

The game continued, now in slower moves with fewer interactions like the previous ones. Fatigue was becoming more and more present and the tinnitus in the ears was gradually increasing. 

Meruem started to think about the fight against Netero.

It was ironic to think that, in the end, he became more human than the human himself. Meruem understood his mission as king of the strongest: he would protect the weak, those who need help, because that is nature. He also understood that being human and humanity were totally opposite things and one is not intrinsic to another. Humanity needed to be planted, watered and well cared for, just like a rose. Like Komugi. However, the human prepotence was only walking to increase the disparities and the poison of the Human Rose would be lethal to every living being. They dug their own grave, but things didn't have to be like that. They shouldn't be like that. Meruem changed, thanks to the girl in front of him. When would they change?

The beauty of being alive was in the most mundane things. It was in the simplicity of a board game, in the comfort of a genuine smile and in the mutual desire to be next to the person you love. Humanity is a rose with lowercase letter and its beauty is Komugi. And even facing death, Merem allowed himself, for the first time, to live.

Both were more than aware of death, the pain in their bodies and the lack of air didn’t lie; it was an undeniable fact. But instead of imagining a world in which the two of them would live far from this chaos, instead of giving space to fiction that would allow them to be everything they wish, Meruem and Komugi hold onto the present, even with the pain. Their feelings were real and that was more than enough.

“I'll be right here.” Komugi said, getting closer to Meruem, who welcomed her with open arms. They intertwined their fingers and embraced themselves for the first time, in the most beautiful touch and intertwining of souls. They had no idea what they would find after the last heartbeat of their hearts, but they knew their feelings would survive. 

In the lover’s last match, there was no winner and no loser. Perhaps it was imprudent, or too poetic, to say that at that moment, both were winners, because they were together. Meruem and Komugi had the conviction that they were born to live this moment, and that the game is not over yet. After all, since humanity flourished in Meruem, their match was too far to end. Death, then, ceases to be an enemy, and starts to come as a form of comfort. 

"Come willingly" was what Merams thought, because now he had the awareness that death implied at the beginning and end of a cycle.

And it was in the middle of this process that he met Komugi.


End file.
